Devices for the continuous t9eatment of wires or metallic strips



i 5, 1969 M. A. GIROS 3,455,133

DEVICES FOR THE CONTINUOUS TREATMENT OF WIRES OR METALLIC STRIPS Filed April 26, 1965 INVENTOR.

MARCEL'A. GIROS.

ATTORNEY.

United States Patent Oflice 3,455,133 DEVICES FOR THE CONTINUOUS TREATMENT OF WIRES OR METALLIC STRIPS Marcel A. Giros, Ancerville, France, assignor to Societe Spiralex S.A., Basel, Switzerland, a company of Switzerland Filed Apr. 26, 1965, Ser. No. 450,780 Claims priority, application France, Apr. 29, 1964, 786

Int. Cl. B21c 23/24; B21f 3/02; B08]: 3/04 US. Cl. 72-46 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The disclosure involves an improvement in an installation of the prior art for treating a filiform material to impart to it substantially the form of a helix, each loop of which is supported by a horizontal longitudinal rotating shaft, by replacing the filiform material of the helix with a preliminary formed coil of said material, whereby the total length of the filiform material in the treating installation is increased.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The present invention relates to the continuous treatment of materials of great length such as metallic Wire or machine-wire.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART It is known that in order to treat materials, such as machine-wire, metal bands and strips, the material is passed through one or several treatment chambers where it is chemically scoured, coated by electrolytic or other means or otherwise treated.

The duration of the treatment being fixed and the output rate, i.e. the linear speed of the material under treatment being also fixed, the linear path of the material in the treatment chamber is equal to the product of its speed by the duration of treatment. Thus, in order to obtain high output rates with treatment chambers of reasonable dimensions, a tortuous path has been imparted to the material through the chamber, for example by curving it, at the admission to the treatment chamber, into the shape of the turns of a helix. Such a helix progresses in the chamber in which, or above which it is suspended by one or several rotating drums, without apparent movement. Such a device is described in my US. Patent 2,651,104 for example.

It is also known to form such a helix with the material to be treated and to rest it on a mat which advances in or at the bottom of a treatment chamber. The major disadvantage of such a device is the presence of a movable element, the mat in the treatment chamber, in particular when the treatment is a scouring in an acid bath.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION From the above stated considerations, it is clear that a means for further reducing the dimensions of the treatment chamber and/ or increasing the output of the treatment device, is to complicate at will the path of the material in the chamber. Entanglement, of turns or loops of the material one with the other however must be avoided.

Such is the essential object of the invention.

A device for the treatment of a material of great length according to the invention includes means for arranging this material in the general shape of a primary helix, or coil, and means for giving this coil the general shape of 3,455,133 Patented July 15, 1969 a secondary helix and cause it to advance, as is known per se, in a treatment chamber in which or above which it is suspended by one or seyeral rotating drums. Thus, according to the invention the material from which the helix of the above cited patent is made is preformed by preliminary coiling of this same material.

Preferably, the pitch of the secondary helix is slightly less than the diameter of the primary coils. Each coil forming a loop of the secondary helix overlaps into that of the two adjacent loops. The result is therefore that the loops of the secondary helix cannot slide one relative to the other since the turns of the coil mesh one within the other. Once in position, the whole secondary helix advances as a single block.

After passing through the treatment chamber, the secondary helix, unwinds by itself and the primary coil is, if necessary, also unwound.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be better understood by reading the description which follows and examining the accompanying figures in which:

FIG. 1 is an end view of a coil of material to be treated having the shape of a secondary helix.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section of the secondary helix when its pitch is greater than the diameter of the coil.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal section of the secondary helix when its pitch is less than the diameter of the coil.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Machine-wire wound on a spool for example may be made into a helix or coil the diameter of which is several tens of times the diameter of the wire, this coil being provided by the machine which forms it without turning about itself. Such a coil 1 is shown in FIG. 1, disposed and suspended on a drum 2. In contact with the drum 2, the coil forms a half-crown 3. The suspended portion forms a sort of chain-curve 4.

FIG. 2 is a section of the device of FIG. 1, along line a-a. On the drum 2 are mounted equidistant spacers or rings such as 5, and as a whole the coil 1 is arranged so as to have the general shapeof a helix, called secondary helix. The ring 5 separates two successive loops 6 and 7 of this helix.

In operation, the chains such as 4 dip into a treatment bath, for example, the level of which is shown at 8; the drum 2 is rotated; the secondary helix advances along the drum 2 while remaining unchanged in form, each turn of the coil dipping into the treatment bath, leaving the latter to pass over the drum re-dipping and so on, until the end of the treatment.

At the entrance to the bath, the machine-wire arrives from an apparatus which gives it the shape of a coil. This coil does not turn on itself. The coil, after treatment, may be unwound by means which are the reverse of those which served to wind it.

During the treatment, it is necessary that the length of the loops of the secondary helix should be maintained constant; if no precautions are taken to this end, certain loops will lengthen to the detriment of others, certain will surround the drum 2 and no longer dip in the bath, others will lengthen to the extent of dragging on the bottom of the bath, with the risk of impairing the operation of the unit because such loops would have a tendency to lengthen still further, and to become entangled with others.

A first means for avoiding this comprises in cutting in the sides of the rings such as 5 notches uniformly distributed around their periphery and corresponding to each of the turns of the coil 1. Insofar as the turns are correctly inserted in the notches designed for them, there can be no skidding of the coil on the drum, and the length of the loops of the secondary helix necessarily remains constant.

Another means comprise grouping the loops of the secondary helix to the extent that they partially mesh, or in other words, that the turns of the coil of two contiguous loops of the secondary helix penetrate one into the other. Such an arrangement is shown in FIG. 3 which is self explanatory. The rings 5 of FIG. 2 are replaced in FIG. 3 by rings such as 15, narrower and closer together.

Two loops such as 16 and 17 overlap over their whole length, their turns alternating as is shown at 18 and 19, for example.

In accordance with the invention the coil is fed at the entrance to the device so that there is alternation between the turns of the coil at arrival and those of the loop which follows, so that this alternation will go on throughout the length of the treatment bath. The whole coil forming the secondary helix suspended from the drum 2 advances in the manner of a single block.

This is the main advantage of the invention.

A simple calculation shows, moreover, that if the pitch of the coil is less than a circumference having as the diameter that of the wire, the length of the wire under treatment is greater than that of an uncoiled wire arranged as a helix with contiguous turns, under the conditions of the device described in the above cited patent. This permits evaluation of the efiiciency gain brought about :by the invention.

While the present description deals with metallic wire, as the material to be treated, it is obvious that the invention may be applied just as Well to the treatment of metallic bands of the strip kind, for example.

I claim:

1. A method for treating a fili-form material in a treating installation comprising the steps of:

firstly imparting to said material substantially the shape of a coil,

secondly imparting to said coil substantially the shape of a helix, and

thirdly advancing during treatment each loop of said helix by simultaneously rotating it and keeping said helix substantially unchanged in form during the treatment thereof,

said step of advancing including the step of supporting each loop during said treating step, said step of rotating comprising the step of simultaneously separating successive loops of said helix during rotation thereof,

the method further comprising the step of guiding each loop of said helix into meshing alignment with an adjacent helix loop, turn for turn.

2. A device for treating a filiform material in a treating installation, comprising means for imparting to a strand of said material substantially the shape of a coil, means for imparting to said coil substantially the shape of a helix, means for supporting said helix within said treating installation, and means for advancing the material constituting said helix, the latter remaining substantially unchanged in form within said treating installation, said means for supporting said helix within said treating installation being rotating shafts, each helix being in a mutually interpenetrating situation with each adjacent helix loop, whereby the loops cannot slide one relative to the other, the whole advancing as a single block.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,136,649 11/1938 Wadsten 7239 2,651,104 9/1953 Giros 72-39 2,680,710 6/1954 Kenmore et a1. 20428 2,880,861 4/1959 Sklar et a1. 7246 RICHARD J. HERBST, Primary Examiner L. A. LARSON, Assistant Examiner US. (:1. X.R. 

